Europe

Hundreds of thousands took to the streets in Seville last Saturday in a
massive anti-capitalist protest. The government and the police
desperately tried to play down the turnout. The local police claimed up
to 60,000 took part, and the government said 17,000.

In fact, about 300,000 poured onto the streets in a carnival-like
atmosphere. Although overwhelming made up of young people, many older
workers from all over Spain and Seville also took part. The march was
strengthened by the massive success of the 10 million strong general
strike that took place two days earlier. To give just one example of the
militant mood: the day after the general strike CWI members were
drinking coffee in a café, waiting for another protest. As they left the
cafe they found the building surrounded by the police. But this was not
another act of heavy-handed police repression against anti-capitalist
protesters. It was, in fact, a demonstration by 800 police demanding
higher pay!

The protests took place after bombings by ETA. Some protesters arrived
with home made banners proclaiming, ‘No to terrorism and capitalism’, as
if to answer the press campaign that the protests would be violent. In
fact, only three arrests took place during the protests and there was a
mood to make sure it was peaceful. This was despite a large police
presence, and their practice of stopping and searching people on their
way to the march, including CWI members.

This was a radical protest against the hated Spanish government and
capitalism. The foreign debt, the environment, workers’ rights, the
rights of the Western Saharan people, these were all major themes.
Although the marchers were serious and determined there was a
carnival-like atmosphere. As demonstrators baked at 9pm in temperatures
at 40oc, local residents showed their support by turning hosepipes to
cool down the marchers and showering them with buckets of water. The
Western Sahara protesters, who are demanding independence, led their
contingent with a gigantic plastic camel. Youth rolled a massive model
of the planet through the streets as a symbol of a ‘new world’. Of the
main political parties, the communist party had the largest contingent,
along with the CNT/CGT unions. People were eager to get hold of leaflets
and other literature, as CWI members soon found out. If only one leaflet
was given to a group of protesters, there was a clamour by all the other
for their own copies! Within a couple of hours all the CWI literature
was snapped up.

‘A new world!’ – ‘A socialist world!’

The marched started at 8pm and was still moving off by midnight. The CWI
contingent of 35 comrades marched with a samba band and adopted the
Spanish tradition on demonstrations of not only chanting slogans but
also to pause, to kneel down, to stand up and then to rush forward
waving banners and flags.

The marchers demanded a new world. The CWI chanted for a socialist
world. The official organisers of the protest did not offer any
alternative and failed to even organise a rally at the beginning or end
of the demonstration.

However, further marches are planned in Spain as the struggle to topple
the right wing Aznar government steps up. CWI members in Spain call for
a 48-hour general strike, and if this action fails to force the
government to back off with its anti-labour legislation, we call for an
indefinite general strike and the formation of factory committees to
prepare for it. Such a campaign could force the Aznar government out.
But to make far-reaching changes, right wing capitalist governments need
to be replaced with a workers’ government, guided with a socialist
programme to overthrow capitalism.